Interesting piece from the BLS on trends in the U.S. labor market. Note how employment has been “nursed” back to health. Pun intended.

Most of the occupations with the highest job gains between May 2007 and May 2011 were related to healthcare or food service. The occupations with the highest job losses included several occupations related to construction, manufacturing, transportation, and retail trade.

During the May 2007 to May 2011 period, 6 of the 10 occupations with the highest job gains were related to healthcare, including registered nurses, which had an employment increase of 256,230; medical assistants (which had an employment increases of 104,680); and medical secretaries, a healthcare-related office and administrative support occupation (which increased 78,180). Occupations with the highest job gains also included personal care aides (225,250), combined food preparation and serving workers (196,480), general and operations managers (149,620), and restaurant cooks (68,070).

Carpenters had the largest employment decrease over this period, with job losses of 390,760. Other construction, manufacturing, or transportation occupations among the occupations with the highest job losses included construction laborers (-273,690), team assemblers (-214,850), heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (-184,970), and light or delivery service drivers (-151,690).

Of the 10 occupations with the largest employment increases, only 3 had above-average wages: all other physicians and surgeons, general and operations managers, and registered nurses. The remaining seven occupations had wages below the U.S. all-occupations average of $45,230. All of the occupations with the largest employment decreases had below-average wages.